Longitude 2017 | Bambi

Longitude: opposite of Latitude or better known as a music festival held in Marley Park every July. This year was my third year attending longitude. The line-up this year was the best out of the past three years. The main acts I was looking forward to seeing were Stormzy and The Weeknd. Then other acts that I was looking forward to seeing were Dua Lipa, G. Eazy, Mac Miller and Skepta. I’m going to break this post down into days.

Friday, 14^th July, Day 1:

Longitude was quite easy to get to as our hotel had a shuttle bus service that took us to Marley Park. On day one we arrived at half two which wasn’t too bad a time as the gates opened at one. Longitude has multiple check points upon entering, each one checking tickets, etc. Gate one – no problem. Gate two – stuck in a line for twenty minutes. Gate three – knocked over by people pushing, resulting in everyone running. Gate four – waiting for twenty minutes to have my bag checked. Gate five – Waiting for twenty minutes, barrier then knocked over resulting in the stewards not being able to hold everyone back. Now this gate was the last gate that led in to the area to get your weekend wristbands. As the stewards couldn’t control the amount of people getting through there was just a sea of people all pushing to try get their wristbands. Praise my boyfriend Dylan as he was the only thing that kept me upright, there was no room for me to stand on my own two feet. It took us another 30 minutes to get to the front to get our wristbands and that is with people pushing from all sides. We probably looked like sardines in a can from above because there was no room. When we were getting our wristbands put on the lady giving me my wristband was crying from stress and there were men trying to reinforce the counter as it was about to collapse. After being basically carried out of the crowd to get into the concert it was no problem. I lost half my head of hair and hurt my elbow bad but I survived. We got in at about half four. So, it took two hours to get in.

Dua Lipa – The first act we went to see was Dua Lipa on the main stage. Each act is on for 45 minutes so we somehow managed to get up to the front to see her. Honestly, she is amazing live. We left just before the end of hers to get to the next stage.

G-Eazy – We were supposed to be going to see Wiley but he was delayed and I really wanted to see G-Eazy as well so we decided to leave and head back to the main stage. Dylan genuinely thought that G-Eazy was black and he wasn’t the only one as another girl came up to me laughing because she thought the same thing.

After this we wandered around the Park and stopped into see other acts on the Heineken Stage but didn’t have much time as we headed back to the MainStage at seven.

Stormzy – We caught the end of Picture This but to be honest I wasn’t too pushed about seeing them. We got to the midway railing for Stormzy. We could have gotten further up but I wanted to be able to breathe so we stayed where we were. As Stormzy was Fridays headliner he was on the stage for an hour and a half.

Friday was the busiest day in terms of acts that I wanted to see.

Saturday, 15^th July, Day 2:

It was ten times easier to get in on the Saturday as they had upped their stewards and barrier systems. It took us ten minutes’ tops to get in. Once we got in we wandered around for a while. We went to the Dirty Old Speakeasy to see some comedy acts and then found a photo booth and took photos.

Mac Miller – The first act of the day that we went to see was Mac Miller on the main stage, one half of my favourite celebrity couple. He sang (rapped) some of my favourite songs of his.

Skepta - We wandered around for another bit after him and headed back to the main stage to see Skepta. Yet again we found a good space by the middle barrier and choose to stay there. Skepta was a bit disappointing but we will get over that.

The Weeknd – We stayed where we were after Skepta as The Weeknd was coming on shortly after that. The Weeknd put on an amazing concert and as he was headlining day two he had the same hour and a half as Stormzy had the previous day.

Sunday, 16^th July, Day 3:

There was no one we wanted to see on Day three but we like to spend the Sunday wandering even more than before. We went to nearly every stage and chilled. We ate lots of food. I found over €15 in coins at random times during the day which funded most of my food. Mumford and sons was the headline act on the Sunday so the crowd was slightly older than previous days. We didn’t really pay much attention to Mumford and sons, leaving with half an hour left in there set.

All in all, this year’s Longitude was the best by far. Besides nearly dying the first day, it was an enjoyable experience. Looking forward to going back for a fourth-time next year. But if they could maybe not let all the fourteen year olds in that would be much appreciated.

Talk to you in the next post,

Xoxo, Amber. 

July Favourites 2017 | Bambi

July, probably my favourite (summer) month. The main reason for that being that I take most of my holidays then aka nearly 3 weeks so I spend most of it relaxing and doing things I enjoy instead of working. Now don't get me wrong I enjoy work but 5 days a week is taking the biscuit. I mean can we make it like 2 or 3, I can do that.

A good thing that comes with having more time is I get to try new makeup and read new books and just try new things and get out of my comfort zone. So there will be things I have never mentioned in this post.

Starting with makeup, I have been really into highlighters this month and have been trying out new ones.  My favourite that I have tried out this month is the Urban Decay Afterglow Highlighter Palette. It's €31 for 4 highlighters that come in a little palette with a mirror which is a huge plus. Now I will admit that I have a favourite and it would have to be bliss. It is the lightest colour in the palette and it was what I gravitated towards first but recently I have been trying the other colours. Currently as I have gained a tan in Spain (translation: developed 5'000 more freckles) I have been using NSFW and side piece. These flatter me now when I am more tan as they bring out the tan that slight bit more. When I was at a music festival during the month I started to use the peroxide shade and I kinda fell in love with it. It's not a highlighter to wear on a casual day but for a night look I think it would look great.

I decided to try a different makeup brand this month. Something I was way behind on and regret not trying it sooner. That brand is Too faced. I know, I know i'm so behind but don't blame me, blame my lack of money. So as my first product I decided to buy the Too Faced Sweet peach palette. I am in love. It has 18 amazing shades that range from light creams, to pinks, to browns and then my favourites the dark purples. Purple eyeshadows are supposed to complement green eyes but up until this palette I hadn't really used any purples but now I am converted and am obsessed. It cost me €47 and I would spend it again.

 

When I purchase the peach palette I was given a free sample of the Too Faced better than sex mascara and I need to go buy the full size because it is now my new favourite mascara. Usually I use two mascaras in my makeup routine, one lengthening and one volumising. However, this mascara does both. I am still stuck in my old ways of using two mascaras but this is now one of them.

In terms of skincare, I have to mention a suncream as it has been saving my face these past weeks. It doesn't stop the freckles from growing but it stops me turning bright red to match tomatoes. It is the La Roche-Posay invisible fresh mist with SPF 50. Props to my mom for bringing this with her because I forgot a face suncream. 

I don't read as much as I would like to but I am hoping to change that and within the first two days of my holidays I finished the first book I choose to read which was Harry Potter and the cursed child by J.K. Rowling. This book is about Harry Potter as an adult but follows his second child and his adventures/troubles. Now this is a screenplay but after the second chapter I was more than used to it. I purchased this book the day it was released, started it but didn't have the time to continue it so I restarted it and finished it very quickly. I didn't want it to end and, to be honest, I want to reread all the books and rewatch all the movies now.

 

The second book I read was Holding up the Universe by Jennifer Niven. This was also read very quickly. This follows the story of Libby and Jack, two very different people with very different issues. Each chapter jumps from Libby's point of view and then Jack's. It's interesting to see how each of there minds works. I enjoyed it but when it ended, I felt so much more could have been written. It ended with me wanting to know more.

The tv show that I watched in July was Orange is the new black, The new season. I'm sure everyone has heard about it but when the new series came out I was mid way through a different tv show so I had to wait. It yet again left on a terrible cliff hanger and from what I have seen on social media, the new season will be completely different all because of this season. I'm not too sure i'm fully prepared for the change that's to come (in a year) but at least I have the time to try to come to grips with it.

I decided I would include an experience in here as part of my July Favourites. I had two good trips during July but as I write this I am still in Marbella (blog post & youtube video to come) which is the second one so it's not just a July favourite. I'm going to focus on Longitude. The lineup this year was insane. This was my third year going and while the lineup gets bigger each year, so does the crowd. It was extremely difficult to move but after the disaster that was trying to get the wristband on the Friday, they found better ways to control the crowd. I plan on maybe writing a blog post going into more detail but I for sure am making a youtube video on it. It should be up Saturday but don't hold me to that, depending on how nice the wifi here will be to me will decide that.

That is all for my July Favourites. Hopefully I can try some new things in August and have even more things I haven't spoken about in my August Favourites.

Thanks for reading and i'll speak to you all in my next post.

xoxo, Amber.